Serving / Retiree cops - Assisting ambulance crew
Discussion
Hey guys! Second time lucky.
Just looking to get a little bit of an insight into policing from serving or retired cops… although, anyone else feel free to chip in their thoughts / experience / knowledge
Anyway!
A job comes up. An ambulance crew have pressed their emergency button, and are currently under attack. No further details.
What grade / response type would this be? Would it be treated the same as an officer pressing their emergency button? And lastly, how would this job be assigned to units - or would any available units start making their way?
Thank you in advance from a very thankful colleague in green
Just looking to get a little bit of an insight into policing from serving or retired cops… although, anyone else feel free to chip in their thoughts / experience / knowledge
Anyway!
A job comes up. An ambulance crew have pressed their emergency button, and are currently under attack. No further details.
What grade / response type would this be? Would it be treated the same as an officer pressing their emergency button? And lastly, how would this job be assigned to units - or would any available units start making their way?
Thank you in advance from a very thankful colleague in green
In my force = Ambulance staff hitting their 'man down' button is treated in a similar way to an Officer activating their emergency button.
It's an immediate response and anyone available will go.
The only difference is that we won't have any contact with the crew, so have no idea why they've hit the button.
It's an immediate response and anyone available will go.
The only difference is that we won't have any contact with the crew, so have no idea why they've hit the button.
Edited by Nibbles_bits on Thursday 21st December 02:25
On the face of it, Urgent / Grade 1
But...
The Emergency Button goes through to the Ambulance Control, not the Police, and so the Ambulance Control Room need to gather some basic information before passing that to Police (location, what is happening, confirm not accidental activation) and its that information that the Police use to Grade the call.
Assuming it is passed sufficiently accurately that the Police Grade as Urgent, there is then the issue of getting an appropriate Police resource there - You'd hope that anything less urgent would be paused and Officers would attend, though in some cases that's just not possible (same as if Ambulance are dealing with a life-at-risk call and another comes in down the street).
Police Control Room passing information about a 999 Crew under attack would get a significant and determined response in my experience, though how long it takes them to arrive will be a combination of geography and volume of other demand as well as resources.
There is a similar situation with rural Policing, albeit a different challenge as offences-in-progress don't alway benefit from an urgent arrival at the location - sending Police resource/s to exit routes/roads can be more beneficial.
But...
The Emergency Button goes through to the Ambulance Control, not the Police, and so the Ambulance Control Room need to gather some basic information before passing that to Police (location, what is happening, confirm not accidental activation) and its that information that the Police use to Grade the call.
Assuming it is passed sufficiently accurately that the Police Grade as Urgent, there is then the issue of getting an appropriate Police resource there - You'd hope that anything less urgent would be paused and Officers would attend, though in some cases that's just not possible (same as if Ambulance are dealing with a life-at-risk call and another comes in down the street).
Police Control Room passing information about a 999 Crew under attack would get a significant and determined response in my experience, though how long it takes them to arrive will be a combination of geography and volume of other demand as well as resources.
- Absolutely NOT having a go at any Ambulance Crew or indeed the service itself, but I live in a slightly rural location and had the misfortune to be involved in an incident where everyone present thought the patient would die. Whilst another person called 999, I scooped them up and loaded them in my (private) car for a dash to A&E - knowing that the likelihood of an Ambulance getting to our location within a short period of time was nil.
There is a similar situation with rural Policing, albeit a different challenge as offences-in-progress don't alway benefit from an urgent arrival at the location - sending Police resource/s to exit routes/roads can be more beneficial.
Edited by iDrive on Thursday 21st December 07:48
Whilst it might be graded an immediate response that does not always mean there is anybody available to respond as they are tied up with other immediates / waiting in A&E with a prisoner / constant supervision of a prisoner / etc etc
AND those who might be avaiable might not have the driving authority to allow them to respond to incidents using blue lights.
If its a night shift most people would be shocked by how few cops are expected to "police" a large geograhical area.
AND those who might be avaiable might not have the driving authority to allow them to respond to incidents using blue lights.
If its a night shift most people would be shocked by how few cops are expected to "police" a large geograhical area.
As others have said above the Officers on the ground would do an emergency response but the time taken for the Ambulance control to get the log to Police control may delay that response getting through.
It was always my experience that Police and Ambulance crews had a very good relationship
It was always my experience that Police and Ambulance crews had a very good relationship
Greendubber said:
That would always be an immediate response here, however we can sometimes experience delay waiting for the ambo control room to tell us what's actually happening.
And for Ambo control to actually be honest .. there’s a huge difference between a crew requiring urgent assistance and the Ambo service requiring assistance with a call to a violent or potentially violent patient where they may not even be on scene or dispatched The police communications team need to be on the ball in getting the info out of ambo control who sometimes can be either deliberately or inadvertently misleading
My experience of the former is that the call would be treated as if it was a cop calling for urgent assistance
Earthdweller said:
The police communications team need to be on the ball in getting the info out of ambo control who sometimes can be either deliberately or inadvertently misleading
I must add, this isn't an issue isolated to ambulance control - whilst I appreciate you may have arrived on scene to find NOTHING of concern - there has been plenty of occasions arriving to assist police to find a patient with an incredibly insignificant injury, such as a grazed hand - which has pretty much been fed through to our control as a catastrophic hemorrhage. Clearly, there is issues which need to be addressed... will that happen though? Extremely unlikely lol. Thanks for taking the time to give me some info, though
iDrive said:
On the face of it, Urgent / Grade 1
Ambulance response times in some parts of the country are such that I dont believe we have an emergency medical service - the stats cover a sufficiently wide area as to include urban centres too, where the response times are much better - the aggregate performance masks the huge differences.
I agree to be fair. It's unfortunately a risk of rural living/commuting. Ambulance response times in some parts of the country are such that I dont believe we have an emergency medical service - the stats cover a sufficiently wide area as to include urban centres too, where the response times are much better - the aggregate performance masks the huge differences.
Again, thanks for all of your and everyone elses input
I agree about the Police requesting an Ambulance as the Amb Control always put it through as an Emergency for the slightest thing or mental health person just requiring taken to hospital only.
It is the same with NHS 24 the non emergency call centre they always seem to request Ambulances and get them as emergencies and are not questioned about it , eg emergency call severe bleeding,no further details , 30 mile run and arrive to find out nose bleed (stopped by then ), patient on warfarin , taxi at door to take patient to hospital , less than 1 mile away, nhs 24 operator refused to let pt go in taxi.
Complained but bosses wouldn't take complaint forward .
It is the same with NHS 24 the non emergency call centre they always seem to request Ambulances and get them as emergencies and are not questioned about it , eg emergency call severe bleeding,no further details , 30 mile run and arrive to find out nose bleed (stopped by then ), patient on warfarin , taxi at door to take patient to hospital , less than 1 mile away, nhs 24 operator refused to let pt go in taxi.
Complained but bosses wouldn't take complaint forward .
Police can't transport (or shouldn't) transport persons suffering with MH to hospital in police vehicles unless there's specific circumstances. There are local agreements with ambulances services to do this.
Also... It's a brave person over the phone to tell somebody whose reported a serious bleed (whether true or not) to get a taxi to hospital.
The guys and girls on ambulances, I genuinely think are the ones who've really suffered the most in the past decade in terms of cuts, changing job role and expectations than any other of the front line services. They are an amazing bunch.
Also... It's a brave person over the phone to tell somebody whose reported a serious bleed (whether true or not) to get a taxi to hospital.
The guys and girls on ambulances, I genuinely think are the ones who've really suffered the most in the past decade in terms of cuts, changing job role and expectations than any other of the front line services. They are an amazing bunch.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff